Well, its not ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphics, its just little pictures of sandwiches, cookies, and the "Mystery, Incorporated" gang's faces, so I don't know what to tell you...

There were a few fairly non-intuitive ones that I can't recall offhand and it might not have been in the Scooby Doo books at all -- we had several of that type of book and they were not all Scooby Doo. I just remember we used the pages in the back that showed what words the pictures represented quite a lot!

These would probably have been the Little Golden Books series, not sure who or if the author was credited to be. These would be another excellent set for smaller children if you can find the more durable hard cover versions.

I can't believe I hadn't thought of the Little Golden Book Series. They were ridiculously popular when I was a child. I'll definitely look into getting those as well- hardcover preferred.

I know this may seem counter-intuitive for the little ones but keep an eye out for the really large collections of fables, fairy tales or myths. Look for the ones with lots of little two or three page stories that have at least one illustration per individual story. The thicker and more packed full of stories, the better. The more colorful and detailed the illustrations, the better.

The youngest are usually infatuated with such large volumes and love just flipping through and looking at the pictures. The oldest might not mind actually reading some of these shorter stand-alone stories out loud to the youngest.

I know this may seem counter-intuitive for the little ones but keep an eye out for the really large collections of fables, fairy tales or myths. Look for the ones with lots of little two or three page stories that have at least one illustration per individual story. The thicker and more packed full of stories, the better. The more colorful and detailed the illustrations, the better.

The youngest are usually infatuated with such large volumes and love just flipping through and looking at the pictures. The oldest might not mind actually reading some of these shorter stand-alone stories out loud to the youngest.

We actually do the traditional 'bedtime stories' at my house. We do have many fairytale collections (my favorite- Hans Christian Andersen). They are wonderful for the children, and quite an efficient way to put them to sleep. We've also read a few of the Harry Potter books, but I feel like the later-in-the-series books have a bit of mature content for them. So we will await those. But I certainly agree that fairytale collections are wonderful!

Another writer who has some good stories for a little bit older child is Roald Dahl. His "Charlie & the Chocolate Factory" and "Charlie & the great glass elevator" are well remembered reads from my youth. The 1971 movie with Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka was good but the original text is even wilder as far as some of the adventures that happen. He also wrote "James and the Giant Peach" "The Big Friendly Giant" and "Matilda" among others. Judy Blume's "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing" and "Superfudge" are good too, as is Robert McCloskey's "Homer Price."

Judy Blume's "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing" and "Superfudge" are good too, ...

Second this one.

I remember reading these when I was at the fourth grade level and loved them. I was surprised when my daughter red them a few years back and really enjoyed them too.

Also, The Hobbit is a good read-out-loud book for children. I read this one to my daughter when she was around five or six and she recently read it again, herself, in preparation after hearing the movie was coming out. I had read that Tolkien had written it originally as a series of bedtime stories for his children. True or not, the chapter layouts do well for out-loud reading.

One set of books that I got when I was growing up (and still have) is "The Bible Story" books by Maxwell. They are written in simple language that a young child can understand and also teach a lesson through the stories from the Bible which are written out in a way that a young child can understand. They are also well made with beautiful color illustrations.

One book I really like, but it's quite a sad one, is "Love You Forever" by Robert Munsch.
Usually, children around me like the "Gaspard and Lisa" series by Anne Gutman. They also like books which include a CD, like "The Animal Boogie"

love you forever was huge around here. I started with bath books and read them to them in the bath. Monster at the end of the book was the biggest hit. It is a little golden book, with Grover from Sesame Street. Kids go crazy for all the fun of trying to turn the pages.

Little golden books are so cheap, I use to let them pick out one each week when shopping. Being able to pick is great for little ones.